Genetically Modified Crops

	Click to enlarge Winnowing wheat in Ethiopia. Photo courtesy of Niall Crotty.

Food security - the future

In theory there is enough food in the world for everyone, it's just not in the right places. Even if it were politically possible to redistribute that food, what about the future? Will we always be able to produce enough food?

The impending food crisis

• The world’s population is likely to rise from 6 billion today to 8 billion in 2020 and 11 billion by 2050.  Population graph.
• 95% of the increase will occur in the world’s poorest nations.
• At current rates of food production, the increase in population will outstrip increases in world food production by 2050
• This is without taking into consideration the problem of food distribution.
• The worst effects will be felt in poorer countries unless they can increase their food production.
   

Solutions?

If this is the situation we have to face, there are two options for everyone to have enough to eat:

• population control
• increase the production of affordable food in the countries where the food is actually needed.
   

Population control is a topic for discussion elsewhere. So the question now is HOW to increase food production?

 
 Can GM crops help feed the world?

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